All fifty states have laws requiring infants and small children to be restrained while in an operating motor vehicle. In many states, these laws mandate the use of a child safety seat for children up to the age of four years. In recent years, an increasing number of vehicles have been equipped with passenger-side air bags; and by 1996 it is expected that all automobiles produced in the United States will be so equipped.
Although child seat manufacturers routinely warn purchasers to secure the child safety seat in the center of the rear-seat, it is not uncommon for the seat to be placed in the front, passenger-side seat. However, the failure to follow the manufacturer's instructions presents a serious safety risk to a child in the improperly installed safety seat, especially when the child is within a height and weight range wherein it is recommended to position the child seat in a rearward facing manner. Alarmingly, the safety risk to a child seated in a rearward facing seat is even greater when a car is equipped with a passenger-side air bag.
Various studies have shown that the interaction between a rear facing infant seat and a front passenger-side air bag can result in excessive head and chest acceleration, causing serious and perhaps fatal injury to an infant occupant. For example, the air bag/seat interaction produces accelerations of an infant's head exceeding 100 G's at bag impact and Head Injury Criterion (HIC) values ranging from 650 to 1300. By contrast, rear facing seats not experiencing air bag interaction produce head accelerations of about 50 G's and HIC values generally less than 300 when crash tested at a standardized test speed of 48 km/hr. Interestingly, one study has noted that head acceleration remains high in the presence of a rear facing child seat/air bag interaction regardless of the level of crash severity.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a child safety seat that will protect a child despite improper installation of the safety seat in the front-seat, or improper tensioning of restraint belts, especially when the safety seat is rearward facing.